HIPPOLYTE STUDIO
Kalevankatu 18 B, 00100 Helsinki
09 612 33 44, www.hippolyte.fi
Open: Tue–Fri 12–17, Sat–Sun 12–16

8.-31.10.2010
Johanna Ilvessalo
MEMORY GAME

Using objects, often in combination them sounds and lights, Ilvessalo constructs intense total works of art, experiential spaces that allow the viewer to dive into the murky waters of dreams and memories. She uses materials that have a smell, a taste and a texture: steel, glass, photographs, water. Fear, threat and insecurity, the fragility and vulnerability of life; these sound like dismal topics. Unfortunately, in these senseless times, they are an accurate reflection of the feelings of many people. Despite their themes, however, Ilvessalo’s works are not gloomy. They remind us of human warmth and contain a spark of hope.
- Tina Caven

My installations are generally constructed of several different elements: images, movement, lights and shadows, as well as sounds. In my earlier work, I explored the fragility and vulnerability of human life by creating combinations of lights and reflections, flowing water and pictures.

The current exhibition is a continuation of the same theme, just as my work presented at the Mänttä Art Festival last summer. I have rephotographed old photos of my family through different types of lenses. The old photos could be from any family album, we all have similar moments and important events of our lives captured on film. Most of the people in these pictures are dead. I am interested in how our lives are affected by the past: where we come from, our roots, the kind of environment we grew up in.

Johanna Ilvessalo was born in 1964 in Helsinki, where she also lives and works. She studied in Art School Maa in Helsinki 1986–1990, continuing with MFA studies at the University of Art and Design Helsinki 1998–2002 and 2005. In 2006 she commenced special MFA studies at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in the Department of Sculpture.
She has held several solo exhibitions, the latest in Galleria Aarni in the WeeGee Exhibition Centre in Espoo in 2009, and in Gallery Sculptor in Helsinki in 2008 and 2002. From 1990, Ilvessalo has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Finland and abroad; one of these was the Five Rooms exhibition in Kunsthalle Helsinki in 2007. Her public artworks include a piece for the Laajasalo School in 2007, commissioned under the Percent for Art principle by the Helsinki Art Museum, and a work in one of the Art and Design Villas at Anttolanhovi in 2008.
She has work in many collections of various foundations, cities and the Finnish state. In 2009 Ilvessalo was the recipient of the 2009 William Thuring Prize, and in 2010 she was awarded the three-year government grant for artists.

(c) Johanna Ilvessalo

Information and press images:
Hippolyte Studio, +358 9 612 33 44, info[at]hippolyte.fi